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Hey Guys, Hows It Goin? Well, we have to renew our Mexico visas and to do that you have to leave the country and then come back. I have no idea why that,s the law, it doesn’t make much since but we still have to do it so we departed the great Mexican city of La Paz about two weeks ago to head north towards Puerto Panasco. That’s the closest Marina to the border where we have to leave the vessel and bus across to the states. My brother Jeremy, his wife, and his daughter are moving to Arizona soon and we hope to visit them while we’re in the US. Mostly I’m excited to see my niece Isabella since she was born shortly before we left on this journey so we only got to see her a tiny bit.

When we first left La Paz we revisited Ensenada Grande on the island and headed north from there to Los Candeleros, we did some snorkeling but there wasnt much there so we only stayed for a night to get some rest. We met Waponi Woo from La Paz at Bahia Chuenque where they delivered our freezer foot to us by water… literally, Ryan swam it to us. We all chuckled a bit as we watched him swim over with the foot in the air. From Chuenque we went to Loreto which was a medium sized city with lots of people. The fan for our fridge stopped working and that,s super important so we had to get a couple new ones to replace it and have an extra as well. I also purchased a new fishing lure at a local fishing store “Ferremar”. We stayed at Loreto for probably three or four days and took off. Our next destination was Caleta San Juanico. We read in the “Sea of Cortez” cruisers guide that there was a cruisers shrine at San Juanico where people hang there signs and creations showing they came to this bay at a certain time and we had to hang ours to. We carved in a little board our vessel, names, and the date. We all loaded into the dinghy and cruised over to the beach where Sarah lost her glasses… twice! Luckily we found them both times even if it took a trip to the boat and back to get masks. We left that bay after a few days and headed to Bahia Santa Domingo. We went to the rocky beaches and took a couple pictures but that was it there wasn’t much else to explore at that bay so we stayed for only two days before we got pretty bored. After Santa Domingo, we went to Bahia Concepcion, a very pretty bay that many different people from all over come to camp, fish, and swim at the beautiful beaches it offers, but unfortunately we didn’t stay very long. We got there late at night and left early the next morning to another popular vacation spot, Santa Rosalia. We had a wonderful time there, we met a nice man named Sal who spoke very good English and he invited us to a traditional Mexican birthday party for his uncle on Saturday, we couldn’t pass that up so we payed the Fonatur Marina for a week. The marina had WiFi connection so although it may have been a pretty bad connection, it was good enough for me to play Minecraft with some friends on an online server. When Saturday came along Saul told us he would pick us up from the parking lot to take us to the party at 3:00 so we went up there and we waited and waited for two hours just sitting there in the sun and he finally called and told us he wasn’t gonna be there to pick us up until 6:00. *Siiigghhhhh* So we headed back down to the Air Conditioned boat and waited longer. After a while we heard a knock on the boat and we knew it was him so we grabbed our stuff again and headed back up the dock and the steep ramp and hopped into his Volkswagen Beetle. It felt like a clown car as we all stuffed inside this tiny thing and drove off to his house and sat while slowly more and more of his family members drove in. They had a Pinata and really good food and the party went late into the night, it was a blast. Sadly, we had to leave the next morning so we untied the lines and pushed off. We motor sailed because there wasn’t much wind so we weren’t gonna get very far just sailing. I threw in my new lure and waited hoping to catch a fish, we haven’t caught anything for a while so I was eager to get something. Usually these passages are pretty boring, but this one wasn’t so bad because within 30 minutes we had a fish on the line. “Fiiish Ooooon”, as soon as I set the hook the fish jumped out of the water and I saw its blue and green colors. It was a Mahi Mahi, a species I hadn’t yet caught on this trip. I was so excited to get it on board and eat it for lunch, it fought very well for only being only five pounds or so which was perfect for our family, so we cleaned it and through it in the freezer to eat later. We still had room for more so I threw in the line again and only 20 minutes later there was another on the line, they liked that lure. This one was about three or four pounds more then the last one and Sarah fought this one, once she got it up close my dad and I took over, it was really heavy but we got it on board and cleaned that one as well. Now we’ve got alot of Mahi on board to eat.We arrived at Bahia De Los Angelas at night and the next day we ate some Mahi for lunch. It was delicious and I ate it with ceviche, a salsa like recipe for putting on different kinds of meat. It had been suggested to us by other fisherman and boaters several times and I can see why they suggested it. Bahia De Los Angelas is a small city and has plenty of tiendas to prevision, there’s two Pemex stations to get fuel which we had to do. The two fuel stations took quite a walk to get to so my mom and I walked there that evening with our cart to fill four jerry cans and haul back to the boat with the walker bay dinghy. It took a few hours but we got it done and came back with popsicles to suck on when we got back. Today we left Bahia De Los Angelas and we are now heading to the anchorage called Puerto Refugio to swim a bit and eat lunch. Hopefully we make it, but that’s all for now…
so until next time,
HABI HOBA:)

Hey everyone! After we left La Paz we headed to a bunch more anchorages up the west side of the Sea of Cortez. First we went to Los Candeleros and did a bit of snorkeling. Then we mosied on up to Bahia Chenque. There we found Waponi Woo and Ryan swam to us and gave us a freezer foot because ours broke. After that we swooped in to Loreto and we got ice cream and we tried those styrofoam chips that look like wheels. My dad got a part for the boat but I can’t remember what it was. There was a restaurant that we went to and we took a picture in front of the colorful Loreto sign. I was sneezing the whole time we were there so I think I’m allergic to Loreto. Shortly after that we set off for Caleta San Juanico and that was a fun place. We swam all the way to shore and there was a shrine tree and we put our plaque in the tree as well. Later we traveled to Bahia Conception and all we did there was catch some zzzzzs. We left the next day and made our way to Santa Rosalia which is actually a marina. The docks were really slim and the wifi was good and there was a pool and a nearby park. We stayed at Santa Rosalia for nine days and it was fun.
Once we left we went to another anchorage called Bahia De Los Angeles and got gas. We snorkeled at Puerto Refugio and that was fun. Then we left again to Bahia Wilard and just spent the night zzzz then left to go to Bahia San Felipe and that is a marina. That’s where we are right now and we haven’t done anything yet but its not a very good marina because it has bird poop everywhere and smells really bad. That’s all we’ve done so far so untill next time,⚓Habi Hoba⚓
Sarah G Dayton

Change is in the air as we travel from San Diego, our last US port to Ensenada, our first port in Mexico. We were told that the crew must stay on the boat until the captain goes through the process of clearing customs, immigration, the port captain, the bank and the mexican insurance agent. We have been listeing to Spanish lessons during dinner for a couple of months now and let’s just say that immersion is definitely going to be a better method for Darius. With the forms that he had to fill out, which we were able to view online but were unable to translate, the kids and I thought our chances of ever seeing Mexican terra firma were at best pretty slim.

Upon arriving at the entrance to the harbor, we were attempting a radio call to the dock master for landing instructions and discovered that our newly enhanced cell plan that extends coverage to Mexico only allows us to receive calls but not to place them with the phone skills we currently possess. So in trying to figure out what VHF channel the marina monitors, we stumbled across a cruisers forum that gives weather, safety, and other necessary information (such as the name of a dentist in town who speaks English) and we interrupted the conversation to introduce ourselves and get pointed in the right direction. We got docked and with all the necessary paperwork in hand Darius took off for the dock master’s office and the kids and I got busy doing school and cleaning up the boat. About 15 minutes later Al, our traveling buddy shows back up at the boat and says that Darius needs a picture of the serial number of the boat motor and that all of us had to do this first paperwork macarena. Remember, we sailed in the elements for 20 hours overnight, did some cleaning, made breakfast, worked on school lessons, took a picture of a dirty greasy motor that I had to crawl down into a hatch to access, and now I have to look respectable because the dock master’s clerks are going to lead this dance for us. Oh what a beautiful mess to be in. So speed hair and toothbrushing all around and we were off with an actual possibility of being allowed into the country.

We got lots of help, read lots of signs, talked to all variety of Mexican beaurocrats, paid $533.00 USD, and were welcomed into the country for 180 days. Woohoo! So we were returned to the dock, which is part of a hotel resort with swimming pools and all of the amenities.

We decided it was time to get some culture and venture into town for some authentic Mexican street tacos for dinner by way of city bus. It was an adventure finding the right bus to get back to the boat but we made it in time to take a swim and relax in the hot tubs.

We spent the next day grocery shopping which was a test of my Spanish skills but it seems that I did alright. We have had tostadas, donas, fruit salad with pineapple, papaya, honey and lime, we made pico de gallo, bean and cheese sopas, and this morning we had to google the words on the package to figure out that we were having turkey chorizo with rice and fried eggs. No complaints about the food yet.

We adventured through another trip to the grocery store for water and some freshly baked tortillas, Darius tackled an auto parts store and a lumber/hardware store on his own and then met me at the pharmacy to purchase an inhaler. The pharmacist didn’t speak any English and after Darius’ cherades antomime she put her finger up and lead him to the binaca. One more game of “asthma” charades and $2.60 and we were out the door.

We did our repair on the boat and spent a second evening in the pool and then decided to stick around Ensenada instead of heading south because a storm front was moving in. Since our posh moorage didn’t agree with our not as posh budget, we headed over to an anchorage and set out two anchors with chain in series and checked the weather on the Internet to see that this storm is now moved to potentially a category 5.

So, now we say our prayers and write our blogs and read our book and wait for this weather to pass and look forward to the next 3 weeks with nothing but sun in the forecast.

Well, it’s November already and we have had quite a journey so far. We are sitting on the boat at anchor in San Diego Bay and are taking in all of the beauty we are surrounded by, Sarah is appreciating the palm trees, I love to look at the lights of the cityscape at night, Jake is appreciating the sunshine in November, and Darius is enjoying the hunt for WiFi…like hunting for wabbits only different. We have had an opportunity to spend a lot of time together and for the most part that has been a wonderful thing. It is one of the many things that we have to be thankful for this thanksgiving season.
I have had an opportunity to shop for groceries in more than a few seaside ports along the way, finding some good bargains, some interesting new fruits and veggies, and I have taken many long walks hauling groceries in my wheeled cart which is a bit bulky for some of the streets with lots of traffic but no sidewalks which has been the case in many California towns.
In Eureka, we walked several times in our 5 weeks to Grocery Outlet which was a dinghy ride and then a mile walk or to target which was a 1.5-2 mile walk over a highway overpass bridge and then through a residential part of town. We were also blessed with rides for shopping trips on a few occasions by friends we were so luck to get to know.
In Bodega bay we walked around the head of the bay to a tiny little organic market which challenged our food budget with milk that cost $8.55 per gallon and had and interesting selection of “natural food items” but not so much in the way of staples. As we took a shortcut through a campground, Jake smelled the campfires and was stricken with a strong need to build our own campfire for smores roasting. So, we dropped off our groceries, found Darius and went off toward an equestrian trailhead park to find a firepit and build a fire. We played in the sand all afternoon and the kids found a bag of change…an afternoon of blessings of all sorts. We were also able to go explore the UC Davis Marine Research Lab and learn a lot about creatures being cared for off the California Coast, including the white abalone and at the conclusion of our tour, our kind tourguide asked about the kid’s homeschooling and our adventures and then blessed us with a ride back to the boat.
At Half Moon Bay we took a family walk…mostly because I accidentally heard Darius say “we walk, that’s what we do” to someone that he met on the dock. So, we walked…to Safeway…that google maps said was 3.7 miles away. It was a beautiful walk along an embarcadero that bordered the high bank surf beaches where Mavericks takes place and meandered through equestrian trails and camp grounds and beachfront streets. We did our shopping and decided to take a more direct route home, which lead us along a dark unlit highway with sidewalks that come and go without warning, which makes pulling the cart of groceries quite a feat. We had a few days to just sit on the beach and watch the kids fly kites and play in the water. Our first opportunity for Mai Tais on the beach…or bottled wine coolers because the travel better. If I had to pick a place to spend more time along the California Coast, Half Moon Bay would be the place. It was beautiful, the showers were long, hot, and free, and the weather was nice. Somehow, my fitbit says I walked 10.2 miles (Don’t tell Darius…He thought 3.7 mile was too far to walk and tried to talk the kids into hitchhiking, but he succumbed to their safer, more reasonable requests to just keep walking).
Our next port of call was Monterey, where we were blessed with wonderful weather, some opportunities for learning and exploring, and we met a great new friend and traveling buddy. We took a day to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. While we were walking along the boardwalk to the aquarium, a city worker who was repairing a street sign, asked me if we were headed to the aquarium and when I said yes, he blessed us with three free tickets. Wow, thanks so much, what a blessing! We learned a lot that day, about fish, sharks that travel the same trip we are making, whale migration, and so much more! While we were in Monterey we also had a day to spend going through the museums and learning about the Native Californians, the Spanish explorers, the missions, the US Military actions that claimed the west coast for the US and the history of the fur traders and shipping along the west coast.
We took a long walk to provision in Monterey at Safeway. I knew it was quite a distance but I was not prepared to walk up the 18% grade…Which when he looked up at it, Jake said “Mom I think we can make it if we use our hands and our feet to clim it”. It was ominous but we were able to make it up the hill and back down again with a cartfull of groceries and no melons rolling down the hill racing us to the bottom or any other tragedies we predicted, thanks to Jake and Sarah pulling on the cart to keep it from running me over…teamwork!
Next stop was in Morro Bay. We enjoyed paddle boarders, kayakers, and dinghy drivers every morning and evening who stopped to chat on their way by. We took a couple of trips to Albertsons, for groceries and parts to repair Darius’ glasses, which was a nice mile or so walk, only slightly uphill, from our anchorage. We met many very interesting people, walked to town to buy the most delicious cinnamon rolls one morning and spent a few days enjoying that we had finally found summer weather with the kids swimming and kayaking and surfers all over the place because the surf was high while we were there.
Santa Barbara was our next port and that leg was a little rough as we managed to break many parts of out lovely little ship, from overheating the motor to breaking another part of the boom attachment component as well as the masthead pulley from which we fly our spinnaker. We had some fog, some rough weather, rougher water and many obstacles (oil platforms) to navigate around under sail, with no main due to the broken boom and the heavy weather (35+ knots of wind). We rounded point conception and then within five miles or so, in the darkness, we had no wind an no forward propulsion, but we did have a buddy boat. So, Darius commandeered the Iko Iko, put the captain down for a nap and towed our boat into the harbor entrance at Santa Barbara, where the kind gentlemen from the harbor patrol hip tied to tow us into a slip.
We took this opportunity to make our repairs, walk to 7-11 (because my crew works better fueled by slurpees) and to play on the beach. We restocked our supplies at an interesting little Mexican market that had a really nice meat selection and a meat cutter who’s English was limited. I requested 10 chicken breasts and I believe he packaged 10 lbs of chicken breasts. So, that week, we enjoyed really good chicken in four or five different preparations. We also had a chance to try a variety of Mexican pan (sweet breakfast breads). Adventures in cooking and shopping!
Next, we headed out on a leg to Newport Bay…Wow, what a place. It looks like a something between a Hollywood movie set and a Mediterranean seaport. It was so busy and cool and filled with people having fun on the water. We took a trip by dinghy and then an hour walk to a boaters used parts supermarket to try to find some more permanent part to fix our boom issue. We shopped until the store was closed, bought nothing, and decided that we could easily spend another day or two looking over their wares. But, moorage was expensive and the people in the mooring office were not friendly, so, off we go again, but not before the kids evaluated the beach a let us know that the sand was too chunky and not right for a sandy beach.
We made it into Mission Bay and registered with the port feeling like we had arrived at our first real destination point and were welcomed into port by the lifeguard office and told we could stay for free for 72 hours at which time we could secure a permanent slip, move on, or have the boat impounded. A little different welcome than we had envisioned. So, we went ashore, had lunch with Darius’ uncle JR, and then raced back to the boat because Penny and Rod Gunn rented a boat and came out to visit us. A much warmer welcome from our friends and family than the port authorities! We had fun talking and visiting and playing at the beach.
Jake and I decided to take a trip to the grocery store, Ralph’s this time, bu dinghying up to the head of the bay and then taking a half mile or so walk. We set off at about 3:00pm and made our way to the waters edge only to find that the tide was low, very muddy kind of low and the only dock belonged to a resort, but we decided to tie up and take the risk. We did our shopping, helped onto the right path by the Mexican resort gardener who helped us get through the gated part of the hotel storage yard and onto the main street. Jake was pressuring me all through the store about how long it was taking and then finally we were finished and on our way back, back through the yard and side gate of the resort, through the Hawaiian luau at the patio bar and out onto the dock to meet face to face with a locked gate between us and our dinghy as evening is approaching and daylight is dwindling. I had to go back through the maze and into the hotel lobby to ask them to open the dock gate. He was kind, but not negligent in his obligation to his duty of letting me know that it was private and the public was not welcome to tie up there. I apologized and he calloed a security person to let us through. When I got back through the maze to Jake and my cart of groceries, I was met by a security guard letting Jake and then myself know that the dock was private and not for public tie up. I apologized again and assured him that we would never tie to the dock again and he finally saw fit to open the gate. So, by now, it is truly dark and Jake is not happy about dinghying back up the entire length of the bay without proper lighting even though the bay has a five mile per hour speed limit and the water and weather were nice. We settled on using my phone flashlight as a stern light and he was much happier.
After three days, we headed out again for San Diego Bay. We were welcomed by the San Diego Harbor Police for a vessel inspection and we were invited to stay in the harbor at anchor for free for up to 90 days. So, here we are in sunny San Diego, not a calm as mission bay but we traded that for the amazing lights of the cityscape from the bay and an opportunity to rest and be thankful for where we have been, what we have been able to see and learn and the people we have met along the way. Oh what an adventure!

Hey Guys, so now we are in San Diego bay and we are on the anchor next to Al and he has to go to work so he’ll be off the Iko Iko for a while.
On the way down I threw out a fishing line off his boat and I caught a few long skinny fish with teeth that I cannot identify and I also caught another bonita. We went to the farmers market to pick up a few veggies and dips and we went to seven eleven to grab some drinks. After that we explored the bay a little bit in our dinghys, that was fun. Al and I raced our dinghys and although he has a six horse power motor and we have a five, I still won because I’m lighter than him so I plane out better. Al took the day off to go get his vehicle so he can drive to his clients. Right now we are having electrical problems. The gauges aren’t working because something is going on with the alternator and the Perko switch so our engine isn’t charging the batteries. At least we didn’t come into this bay because the engine is broken and we have a while to fix it. That all the info on this bay I have right now. We will keep you updated on what’s coming up but, Until next time,
⚓HABI HOBA⚓

November 22, 2016
It’s about time we get anchored and save some money. It costs a lot of money to go to these marinas and a lot of stomach to stay out at sea. We went to Morro Bay anchorage and we were rafted to a friend we met in Monterey named Al. Jake got to help him get to Morro Bay with us because he was alone. Al is also traveling to San Diego.

We came to Santa Barbara and we played at the beach and got slurpees at seven eleven to put aside the fact that we broke our boat… Again (boom, moter, spinnaker pulley). We went to Newport and after that was Mission Bay, we didn’t do much in those places. Finally we are here in San Diego! It’s awesome here other than the anchorage is very wavey and it rains a lot. San Diego looks like Seattle with palm trees. We are right next to an air port and it’s really loud. We got our generator up and running so we can have electicity. That seems to be all that has happened so far.
⚓Habi Hoba⚓
Sarah G Dayton

Buddy started off a new day in the small town of tinyopia, and when I say small town I mean everything is small. Nothing is bigger than your finger in this town. He started the day by going for a ride on his best horse Rudolph. He did not have a red nose if you we’re wondering, or antlers. But anyways ,this was a very skilled horse. He could jump 11 feet and could run 60 MPH for 5 minutes. Buddy was working at a research facility for college credits. They studied life biology and helped sick animals. In March 2014 they started a cat research and found that they breed and produce in the fall so that when the babies we’re to old to drink mamas milk, they could eat plants in the spring because that’s when all the plants are growing. Well, one day, Buddy was riding his horse out in the woods and he found the biggest cat he had ever seen in his entire life. It was huge. The cat was hunting so once it saw Buddy it started chasing him. He ran his horse as fast as he could until he could not see the cat anymore and his horse was tired. He stopped at a tree house his friend had made that he used for a hunting blind during winter and he and his his horse went in there. It was night time so he went to sleep and in the morning he woke up and looked out the window and he saw the big cat which was still looking for him. He pulled out his rope to lasso the cat. He hadn’t started reading a book on how to lasso to long ago but apparently his skills weren’t good enough because he just barely missed the cat. It heard the rope hit the ground and he saw Buddy holding it so Buddy jump out of the tree house with his horse and they took off. The horse did not get enough sleep because it to tired to run to fast this time so the cat was right behind them. Buddy told his horse to keep going straight so he could turn around and try to lasso the cat. He aimed and threw the lasso and it made it right over the cats head. Now that he had the cat on his rope he lead it to the research lab. When he got there he whistled for the professor who came out with a big cage and they put the cat in it. They did some research on the cat and found out it was a bloober cat. The Professor promoted Buddy for all his hard work.
THE END

This morning I got up and brushed my teeth and hair and grabed a peach but I forgot to change out of my pajamas. I was already late for work so I was in a rush, I wasn’t thinking straight without my morning coffee. Going to work wasn’t a hassle considering it was only two blocks away. It was a good thing it was goofy pants day because my boss would be really mad if I did this on any other day. My boss Carl has these silly days like goofy pants day but my favorite is gummy bear day! I work at a hospital, I’m a receptionist. The sink in one of the restrooms is broken and has been for a week now but the plummer my dad has been working on it. The pipe started leaking then the weird noises and then… nothing, no water. After that, three other sinks did this too. This kind of plumming problems stresses my dad out, he’s seventy-nine. My nephew, hanson came to work with me today and asked if he coud help with my dad and I let him, I don’t know why I let myself do that! Hanson was tightening the hose clamp and my dad went to one of the other bathrooms. Hanson was a bad boy and loosened a pipe and shoved some of his own gummy bears in it then re-tightened it. Two days later was gummy bear day! “Finished” said my dad from under the sink. Carl ran to the restroom and said “It’s an emergency!” so my dad stepped out and said through his long greasy beard “How is work go…” he was interupted by a loud high pitched scream. Carl opened the door and pointed to a sink filling with gummy bears! “That’s a good way to celebrate gummy bear day!” I said under my breath.